Sales & Marketing Management - October 2007 - (Page 26)

finding, keeping and grooming SALES BEST THE quickly and more successful over the long term. “You will not move the sales productivity needle for your organization without moving that middle group,” Andersen says. He brings this concept to life by comparing it to the 1927 World Series Champion New York Yankees: “That was a championship team because of the likes of wellknown players like Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. But they became a dynasty because of players like Bob Meusel, Joe Dugan and Tony Lazzeri, whom few people have heard of.” Andersen says Honeywell Building Solutions, a division of Honeywell Inc., integrated all of these concepts into its sales team: “Senior-level management has done a great job of creating a vision and communicating it throughout the organization,” he says. “They also have a certification program for their first- and second-line managers that equips them to be effective field coaches. “These managers become workshop coaches when the reps have their training, and we work with real-life accounts and real opportunities. Everyone can see that the cultural emphasis is on making everyone better in their job, not just a select few. We all need the Bob Meusels and Tony Lazzeris.” What differentiates a world-class sales organization from one that’s not? According to Jeff Shumway, vice president of FranklinCovey and general manager of its Sales Performance Group, “A world-class sales organization understands ‘whole needs development.’ In other words, they come to a call armed with solutions rather than just regurgitating pricing. They can also have a business conversation with a CEO, divisional president, or sales leader in terminology that each of those people relates to and understands. This means understanding return on investment, the ROI timetable and the investment cycle. “A world-class sales organization must also have training in place to reinforce and coach to continue to develop sales skills,” he continues. “If a systemic process is not in place, training is happenstance, if at all.” Shumway looks for candidates who can express themselves clearly, have presence and have situational experience. The candidates then go through three phases of interviewing after the human resources department screens qualified people. First, Shumway and his direcwww.salesandmarketing.com www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com FORCE drive the hiring, coaching, and performance management process,” Page says. “If you don’t do that, you’re hiring on hope.” According to Page, in a competency-based model, you identify things you need to hire for. This can be done by defining your “best practice” sales cycle and determining what made it best. Whatever those determining factors were, look for a candidate who embodies those skills. Or, assess your top 10 salespeople and distill their competencies into a model that candidates need to measure up to. If done correctly, he says, the competency-based model of hiring can be turned into a performance review after the person is in the fold. Putting together a top-rate sales force starts with front line managers, Page adds. “You have to get the right management team and train these people,” he says. “You can’t take your best sales performer and say, ‘Poof, you’re the manager,’ and expect them to succeed. It’s a totally different skill set.” Page says that many sales managers don’t feel that growing a rep is part of their job, and because they have so little time, coaching falls by the wayside. If your sales reps don’t feel supported by these front-line managers, they will be more apt to leave when a better opportunity comes along, he cautions. According to Steve Andersen, president and founder of Performance Methods, Inc. (PMI) in Atlanta, in order to attract “top gun” sales performers to your organization, you need to do three things: 1 2 3 Show them your company has an effective vision for the future, developed by senior leadership, and be able to communicate it. Equip and enable first- and-second line managers to be effective field coaches. Does the potential employee think you can add value to him or her that will make them want to stay with your company? Invest in sales best practices programs that are designed to get more productivity from the middle 80 percent of performers (that portion of your business between the successful-no-matter-what top 10 percent and the bottom 10 percent). If you are making these types of investments in your people, potential candidates can see themselves being productive more OCTOBER 2007 26 SALES &MARKETING MANAGEMENT http://www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sales & Marketing Management - October 2007

Sales & Marketing Management - October 2007 Contents Editor’s Letter Management Strategies Why Prospecting Gets No Respect Sales Strategy: Spotlight your Services Marketing: A Social Intelligence Primer Management: Steer your Team to Success Motivation/Incentives: The No-Pain Way to Gain Training: Looking for Yesterday’s Learning or Tomorrow’s? Technology: Get Trade Show Satisfaction with the Video Massage Focusing on SMB Solutions The Best Sales Force The Hottest Job Industries Overseas Aggravation Gadgets & Gear: Pen and Ink as an Art Form Books that Improve Strategic Thinking, People Skills and Sales One Foot Out the Door Work/Life: Calling in the Fitness Cavalry. Take-Aways: Bite-size Strategies to Help You Sell More, Market Smarter and Manage Better

Sales & Marketing Management - October 2007

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